NEW YEAR SAINTS

 

The Second Vatican Council teaches about the saints:

Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness... They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus... So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.

It a monastic custom to each draw a saint to be our patron/guide throughout the new year. This year we have chosen to concentrate on modern saints who somehow related to the areas of the Ukraine and the Holy Land, that they may be intercessors for an end to the on-going violence that has captured our world.

A BLESSED CHRIST-FILLED YEAR TO ALL.

Above Icons: Kelly Latimore

SHY HEARTS

 

 Tonight when the hoar frost falls on the wood,

And the rabbit cowers, and the squirrel is cold,

And the horned owl huddles against a star,
And the drifts are deep, and the year is old,
All shy creatures will think of Him.
The shivering mouse, the hare, the wild young fox,
The doe with the startled fawn,
Will dream of gentleness and a Child:

The buck with budding horns will turn
His starry eyes to a silver hill tonight,
The chipmunk will awake and stir
And leave his burrow for the chill, dark midnight,
And all timid things will pause and sigh, and sighing, bless
That Child who loves the trembling hearts,
The shy hearts of the wilderness.

 

"Christmas in the Wood" (Frances Frost)

A CAROL

 

Flocks feed by darkness with a noise of whispers,
In the dry grass of pastures,
And lull the solemn night with their weak bells.

The little towns upon the rocky hills
Look down as meek as children:
Because they have seen come this holy time.

God’s glory, now, is kindled gentler than low candlelight
Under the rafters of a barn:
Eternal Peace is sleeping in the hay,
And Wisdom’s born in secret in a straw-roofed stable.

And O! Make holy music in the stars, you happy angels.
You shepherds, gather on the hill.
Look up, you timid flocks, where the three kings
Are coming through the wintry trees;

While we unnumbered children of the wicked centuries
Come after with our penances and prayers,
And lay them down in the sweet-smelling hay
Beside the wise men’s golden jars.

 (“Carol” by Thomas Merton)

(Painting:  "Seeing Shepherds" by Daniel Bonnell)

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

 

 

 

A Christmas Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson 

O God, our loving Father, help us
Rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,
That we may share in the song of the
Angels, the gladness of the shepherds
And the worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and open the
Door of love all over the world.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing
That Christ brings, and teach us
To be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy
To be thy children and the Christmas
Evening bring us to our beds with
Grateful thoughts, forgiving, and
Forgiven, for Jesus’s sake.

Amen.

(Painting:  Solomon Raj- India)

ON HIS MOTHER'S HEART

 

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are the kings, But here the true hearts are.) The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart, His hair was like a fire. (O weary, weary is the world, But here the world’s desire.) The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee, His hair was like a crown, And all the flowers looked up at Him, And all the stars looked down. G.K. Chesterton

Painting: Giovanni Battista Sassoferrato- 17th C. Italian

ADVENT SURRENDER

 

As we draw near Christmas, this sense of our own need and of the whole world’s need of God’s coming – never greater perhaps than it is now – becomes more intense.  In the great Advent Antiphons which are said in the week before Christmas we seem to hear the voice of the whole suffering creation saying, Come! give us wisdom, give us light, deliver us, liberate us, lead us, teach us how to live.  Save us.  And we, joining in that prayer, unite our need with the one need of the whole world.  We have to remember that the answer to the prayer was not a new and wonderful world order but Bethlehem and the Cross; a life of complete surrender to God’s will; and we must expect this answer to be worked out in our own lives in terms of humility and sacrifice.

      Evelyn Underhill- The Fruits of the Spirit

Painting: Maija Purgaile- Latvia

ADVENT NIGHT

 

 

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect!
Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be low to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent, holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets’ stately setting,
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!       (“Advent” by Thomas Merton)

(Painting by Melissa Bittinger)